One day after the Philadelphia Eagles’ hard-fought 17-10 Sunday Night Football win over the stunned New York Giants, Taking It to the House’s Lead Writer Matt Lombardo returned to the team’s NovaCare Complex . The improbable win, led by backup quarterback Vince Young, even gave Eagles fans a slight glimmer of playoff hopes in an otherwise disappointing season.

Vince Young made his first start of the season for the Eagles and led the offense on it’s longest drive since 2002 to seal a 17-10 win over the Giants.

Last week the much maligned Eagles defense blew their fifth fourth quarter lead of the season, squandering a sure win against the Arizona Cardinals. Then, last night coordinator Juan Castillo’s unit righted the ship and punished Eli Manning and the Giants offense, leading Philadelphia to a 17-10 win at Met Life Stadium. Continue reading →

The Eagles remade defense has struggled out of the gate, and it has become fashionable to blame coordinator Juan Castillo for the unit’s shortcomings. Castillo though, can only coach the players he was given and so far, the inadequacies of those players have been exposed in the first three weeks.

Three weeks into the NFL season and the Philadelphia Eagles are 1-2. Naturally, especially in this town, the reflexive inclination is to cast blame at anything and anyone with a hand in even the most miniscule role in the team’s early struggles. Somehow, just three weeks into his tenure as defensive coordinator, Juan Castillo has found himself in the crosshairs of the boo birds. Quite frankly, that assessment is incredibly premature and doing so shifts the attention from the bigger issues that are fundamentally wrong with the makeup of this football team.

There is no doubting that the results on the field for the Eagles defense have been far from good enough. Philadelphia has surrendered 64 points in the last two weeks, including 29 combined in the fourth quarters of those contests against the Falcons and Giants. Likewise there is little argument that the Birds performance in the red zone has left much to be desired, surrendering six touchdowns in the red zone the last two weeks, good enough to rank last in efficiency inside the 20. Continue reading →

Each week as the Eagles game draws near, Taking It to The House will put the focus on six storylines to watch. This week, The Eagles open their home schedule against the Giants in an NFC East Showdown. The Giants certainly have revenge on their mind from last season’s comeback in the meadowlands but have been bitten by the injury bug. The focus will be on the chess game between Andy Reid and Tom Coughlin that has come to define this rivalry in recent years.

The Philadelphia Eagles have won six straight games against the New York Giants, when these two historic NFC East rivals meet on Sunday, the G Men enter an injured and beleaguered bunch. There is no love lost between these teams after a week of bitter trash talk is simply the tipping point following an offseason of twitter wars and verbal jabs being lobbed up and down the Jersey Turnpike. On Sunday afternoon, the Eagles enter healthy and stung from a week two loss against the Falcons. New York meanwhile enters at 1-1 but snake bitten by injuries. Regardless of circumstances though, these games are typically hard fought, close and physical affairs. Continue reading →

RB LeSean McCoy has rushed for 217 yards in two games after engaging in a bitter Twitter feud with several New York Giants during the offseason. McCoy and the Giants get the first taste of one another in the Eagles home opener on Sunday.

The Eagles-Giants rivalry has devolved into a blood feud between bitter division rivals. The added intensity is thanks largely to the Eagles dominance, winning six in a row against the G Men including last December’s thrilling comeback, and an offseason filled with venomous tweets between stars of both teams.

The flame that lit this cauldron was sparked by DeSean Jackson’s walkoff punt return touchdown that culminated the Eagles comeback after eight and a half minutes of hell for the Giants, that effectively ended their season. Continue reading →

Seems like the Birds have been looking for an inside pocket collapser since former first round pick Corey Simon left town in a contract dispute years ago. Philadelphia has tried names like Sam Rayburn and Broderick Bunkley in the past, but it seems that the 2011 off-season may have finally found the team’s answer for a top-level interior defensive lineman.

In a move that was not as highly touted as some of the Eagles’ other free agent signings, Philadelphia signed veteran defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins from the Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers. And through two games of the 2011 NFL Season, Jenkins has already paid immediate dividends.

The former Packers stout defensive tackle, who is always penetrating gaps, has produced 6 tackles and 3 sacks. Plus he and sackman DE Trent Cole look like the unquestioned leaders of the Birds’ new fast and furious attacking defensive line.

At practice on Wednesday, Taking It to the House and 97.3 ESPN Eagles beat reporter Matt Lombardo caught-up with Jenkins in the Eagles’ lockerroom to talk about his early season success and the challenge of facing the New York Giants on Sunday.

Emotions will be high on Sunday as the NFL remembers 9/11/2001, 10 years later

As the NFL prepares for its “official” opening day on Sunday, I am sure football fans and players will also have something much more important than football on their minds.

This Sunday happens to be 10-year anniversary of the tragic events from September 11, 2001. The National Football League will commemorate the anniversary by showing the league’s huge heart by having moments of silence and reflection at all of their Sunday’s games. But most importantly their will be special remembrances in Washington DC (Redskins hosting New York Giants) and New York (NY Jets hosting Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football).

All of Sunday’s afternoon games be synchronized with pre-game salutes, which will feature a video introduction followed by performances of Taps from near the sites of the attacks, and moments of silence. This will be the second time the anniversary of 9/11 where the start of the season falls on this date (2005).

Also all NFL team members will wear a special NFL 9/11 ribbon and all stadiums hosting games on Sunday will feature the ribbon logo on the field. The league also put aside their bureaucratic ways by making the right call by allowing players to wear special patriotic cleats and gloves to commemorating 9/11. The league sent word about the non-dress code violation via a message, which most importantly said there would not be any $5000.00 dollar fines handed down.

We here at Taking It to the House would also like to remember the many people’s lives that were forever changed on 9/11 by displaying a picture of the Twin Towers. The photo was taken of Editor Lloyd Vance on a friend’s boat in the Summer of 2001 not long before the horrific attacks on them.

Make sure when you are watching your NFL favorite team playing in one of the 13 games on Sunday, to take a minute to say a prayer for the people who served and the others who were harmed in the tragic events from 9/11